1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus such as a digital still camera, digital video camera, or the like. In particular, this invention relates to an image display device with an operation unit that is excellent in operability, and relates to an image pickup apparatus having the image display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image pickup apparatus such as a digital still camera, digital video camera, or the like has been in widespread use that has an image display device (hereinafter, referred to as the display device) for displaying captured images. The display device is often mounted with a relatively large-sized display panel of e.g. 3.5 inches for improvement of the visibility of displayed images.
The display device with large-sized display panel that occupies a large area when mounted on a camera main unit is disposed on e.g. a lateral side of the camera main unit. To improve the usability, some display device is configured to be coupled to the camera main unit for rotation in opening/closing directions relative to the camera main unit. It is also possible to configure the display device to be rotatable relative to the camera main unit about an axis perpendicular to the opening/closing directions of the display device, whereby an installation angle of the display device can be changed to an angle where a photographer/user can easily view a displayed image.
For example, a digital camera shown in FIGS. 27 to 32 has been proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3669244.
Referring to FIGS. 27 and 28, the proposed digital camera has a monitor block 2 (display device) mounted to a camera main unit 8 by means of a mounting member 3a that has a rotary part thereof configured to be rotatable about first and second rotation axes X, Y relative to a stationary part thereof fixed to the monitor block 2. Thus, the monitor block 2 can be rotated by nearly 180 degrees relative to the camera main unit 8 about the first rotation axis X from a state of FIG. 27 to a state of FIG. 29 and can be rotated by nearly 270 degrees about the second rotation axis Y from the state of FIG. 29 to a state of FIG. 30.
By rotating the monitor block 2 from the state of FIG. 29 by nearly 180 degrees relative to the camera main unit 8 about the second rotation axis Y, it becomes possible as shown in FIG. 31 to cause a display unit of the monitor block 2 to face an object to be photographed. By rotating the monitor block 2 from the state of FIG. 31 by nearly 180 degrees relative to the camera main unit 8 about the first rotation axis X, a photographer/user becomes capable of easily viewing an image displayed on the display unit of the monitor block 2 in a state where the monitor block 2 is housed in the camera main unit 8 as shown in FIG. 32.
With the video camera disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3669244, the monitor block 2 is capable of assuming various angles relative to the camera main unit 8, whereby the visibility of an image displayed on the display unit can be improved. However, an operation unit is formed integrally with the camera main unit 8 and cannot assume an arbitrary angle relative to the camera main unit 8. As a result, the operability of the operation unit is sometimes lowered when the photographer/user operates the operation unit while viewing an image displayed on the display unit of the monitor block 2 that has been adjusted to assume an angle where the photographer/user can easily view a displayed image.